Our Tiny Planet

April 19th, 2019

Caring for the world around me can be difficult when I struggle to care for myself. How can I put energy towards combating climate change or separating plastics from trash, when I already face so much difficulty in maintaining a proper meal plan and even waking myself for class?

But Earth Day is so much more than just the conservation of the world, but rather a day dedicated to appreciating the world we live in. Though I don’t spend each day dedicated to preserving the world, I can still see the pure, natural beauty of my surroundings and understand the dangerous implications of my actions and the actions of others.

After completing a photography course in high school, I soon began experimenting with a style of photography called Tiny Planets. This technique of photography requires extreme manipulation of panoramic photos, with results mimicking that of a planet.

As I faced the debilitating effects of depression and anxiety, I struggled to see the world in a beautiful and exciting way, though I knew it should be. Creating the Tiny Planets required abstract thinking that I previously couldn’t understand, and I began to see my world as individual moments of their own, each one subject to becoming its own planet, an entirely different world.

Upon sharing my creation with family and friends, I eventually gave a definition to my Tiny Planets: I take a singular moment and turn that into a planet, because in that moment, it was my entire world.

This Earth Day, I would suggest to anybody who is struggling to do as I did and experience the world by moments. Recognize the world can look entirely different to each person at any given moment, but contrary to this, we all still reside on the same planet.

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Ilana is a student at the George Washington University, studying Journalism and Mass Communications. She is involved in MediaFile, a student run publication where she writes for the opinions section, Speaker of The House, a slam poetry group on campus, as well as a religious group on campus. Ilana has been published on a variety of sites, emphasizing her passion for entertainment, mental health awareness, and travel within her writing. She is interning with Active Minds this spring.